Budget Accountability Systems: What the Open Budget Survey Shows about Countries in the Asia and Pacific Region

Abstract

Though often seen as technical and far removed from ordinary people’s everyday concerns, the budget is perhaps the government’s most powerful tool to tackle economic and social challenges and pursue desired policy goals. Further, meeting international development goals—including recent agreements around the United Nation’s sustainable development goals and climate change—will depend on the national budget policies adopted to support their implementation. What a government proposes in its budget could literally change lives, particularly for those who are poor and marginalized and rely heavily on public services to meet their basic needs. Thus, the public needs to know what spending and tax policies the budget proposes, have a voice in budget decisions, and be able to hold government accountable for managing public money. However, in most countries, public budget systems and practices do not measure up, according to the Open Budget Survey (OBS) 2015. The survey examines the current state of budget transparency and how it has changed over time; the degree to which opportunities for public participation in the budget process are present; and the strength of the two formal oversight institutions, the legislature and the supreme audit institution.2 The 2015 OBS was produced by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), a nongovernment organization that collaborates with civil society to use budget analysis and advocacy as a tool to improve governance and reduce poverty. The survey covers 102 countries, including 23 developing countries in Asia and the Pacific.3 The OBS was first introduced in 2006 and is now in its fifth iteration.